Photography help

Dusted

Dusted

Well-Known Member
I’m a neophyte with good equipment. I have a Canon EOS 6Dii (full frame 24.3 mp). I am presently trying to get pictures of my plants with a 24-105 f4L lens and 430EXii speedlite. In previous grows I have used metal halide lighting which has a much broader spectrum than the hps I am using now, and could get acceptable pictures. The hps lighting is so overpowering in yellow red the pictures are awful. Pictures taken with the light on and the flash result in slightly better colour but still not good enough. I have tried taking pictures with the light off using the flash with mixed results:

Blur due to camera shake. I thought a flash would provide enough light that camera shake wouldn’t be a problem. I have a good tripod which I will have to try.
Reflective white walls behind plant. I tried putting up a dark sheet behind the plant which helped. Would a full power ceiling bounce be a better option?
I’m still having trouble figuring out the proper f stop to use as well. I got some decent pictures with my 150mm f2.8 macro lens, but the depth of field was way off.
Would getting a good led flood light be the best lighting for my purposes?
How about when I get to pictures of buds?

Are there any photographers out there that could give me a few hints? The 420 crowd might appreciate the results.
 
Tripod tripod tripod. Gear and settings don't mean anything if you can't hold a steady shot. You've covered the different ways to deal with the environment the hps should be off to help maintain optimal results.

All about how much you want to spend on it. A couple diffused flood flights will give you some more flexibility. But a simple clean back drop does wonders.
 
I can see some sort of backdrop is going to be necessary. I didn’t take into consideration photography when I positioned my pots, so it’s going to get tricky as things get big. There are a couple of spots I can set up the tripod to get shots, but the bedroom will pretty much get filled as things progress. Since there is so much light in the grow room I was hoping there was a magic filter that could help the camera use all those lumens.
 
Setting your white balance outside will help. But some ballasts still seem to create banding. The lights are not from the correct angle either.
I turn my lights off and just use the lights in the room. Sometimes I'll use a portable led light bar if I'm feeling ambitious or shooting in the back of the tent.
 
You gotta love goggle, even though they know way too much about you. There is a magic filter (supposedly) available on Amazon for $185 plus mounting bracket. The hps grow room glasses are reported to work and this uses the similar filtering with high end glass. Hmmmm. Anyone tried this?
 
What mode are you shooting in? If you increase the ISO you will get brighter images for a given shutter speed. With a certain decrease in quality but may not matter for your purposes. Tripod as stated before would also help, you'll be wanting one anyway if you're getting into photography!
 
You have your F stop almost wide open close it down try F16 or higher. I just shot some using F18 , shutter 750 with iso at 100 . Adjust color balance to suit.
 
Basically I just use cheap HPS sunglasses as a filter. I cut one lens of the glasses off and rigged it up to fit over the camera (actually just an iphone) so I can use both hands). It works well enough for a start. From there I can play with the white balance a little to tweak things if I want. The sunglasses cost around $15 Canadian.
I’m sure there are more upscale versions of this type of filter to fit your camera lens or you can probably find a way to DIY.

[
image29882.jpg


image29884.jpg

UNFILTERED


image29885.jpg

FILTERED

This is just to get me by for journal posting purposes. Those pics were taken with an old iPhone 4s. Reality is my equipment is bottom of the barrel so can’t take great pics anyway. And if I want to take the best quality photo I can using what I have, I drag the plants into the daylight for shots at harvest time. Or sometimes I drag them into the veg room under MH lighting which is also better than the filtered HPS option.
Still, maybe it points you in a direction that might help you in your situation.
 
Thanks for this post, been meaning to test this myself. Made me finally get off my duff.

I'm an audio guy, the whole video side is new so these are merely some of my immediate observations. Protective eyewear isn't meant to correct, just filter un-wanted parts of the spectrum. What this means is they're a compromise at best, it will never come close to natural light.

Having said that, I was surprised to see the filtered image look exactly like what my eyes saw without the glasses. When I put the glasses on my head, it looks nothing like the filtered picture nor the unfiltered.

Conclusion, if you want to capture exactly, or close to what your naked eye sees under the same light this will work. If you're trying to capture better you need another method or drag it out into natural light.

Some of the blur could be due to a slow shutter speed if there's a fan blowing. It's the plants moving that's responsible, at least in part. Remember, I'm a Newb. You'd know better than I, just observations.

Forum's not drinking my kool-ade, ATM. I have to pop out so I'll try to get the pics up when I return.

Let's try this once more. I took a wider shot to see more colors.

Shades
Shades.jpg


Without

Without.jpg


With

With.jpg
 
Funny, I wandered back and added a paragraph onto the end of that post right around the time you were posting yours, bustedfist, more or less throwing in the same disclaimers.
 
One more thing, remember to disable the flash if it's right next to the lens, like on a phone if you use this method. Doh! Especially if you're rushed and just snap and go. You'll get a cool kaleidoscope effect of the flash when it's mirrored into the lens, but nothing you thought you got. Did I say Doh?
 
$185 is too much for a filter that may get used a few times. The lights are at 12/12 so it’s more convenient to get some shots without the hps, using external flash. Tripod does get rid of blur. Still working on optimum distance from plants to get the best lighting from the flash. Another month and I will switch to the metal halide bulb so flowering pictures should be better.
 

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